FourFourTwo – Sept 2017

With the 2017-2018 football season just around the corner, make sure you are up to date with everything FOOTBALL!

FourFourTwo offers you an exclusive preview to the season ahead with 104 teams rated, including those from the Premier League, Championship, League 1 & 2, Non-League and The Scottish Premiership!

The same questions are asked every year – Who will win the Prem? Who’ll be scraping it out at Wembley in the Football League play-off finals? Who is the next star to be unearthed from non-league? And can anyone catch Celtic?

MAIN FEATURES…

Premier League – It’s time cash-splashers Jose and Pep delivered, but Chelsea’s title defence won’t fall apart as badly as last time!

Championship – The notoriously tough second tier may hinge on Wolves’ eye-catching record signing and a manager from Dortmund.

League One – Amid many curiosities, not least Paul Cook swapping Pompey for Wigan, will we see a Rovers return in Blackburn?

League Two – The most competitive division of all headed up by the Donald Trump of the fourth tier (give or take a few Russians).

Non-League – The pyramid’s lower tiers have rarely looked so attractive, with Hartlepool, Orient and Salford all eyeing success.

Scottish Premiership – While the Edinburgh derby returns, can Rangers close the gap on Celtic, or will Aberdeen split up the Old Firm again?

FourFourTwo July 2017 – Lionel Messi Guest Editor

“Hola and welcome to FourFourTwo (or should that be FourThreeThree?!). My first interview with the magazine was in 2006, and since then I’ve been interviewed a few times. But this is the first time I’ve been guest editor, and what a privilege it is.

“As well as the main cover interview in which I discuss a selection of my career highlights, there’s a piece on the other members of the 500-goal club (which I had the great honour of joining during the week that I edited the magazine) and a look back at the La Masia team I played in, featuring Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique to name but two of a host of team-mates who were brilliant both on and off the field.

“We also went over to Milan to speak to my former Argentina captain Javier Zanetti, while Ronaldinho picks his Perfect XI – here’s hoping I’ve made the cut…”

Lionel Messi, Guest editor

Best. Editor. Ever. From being ‘a little nervous’ about his Barça debut, to the ‘beautiful memory’ of bagging Olympic gold with good pal Sergio Aguero and a ‘perfect night’ scoring his 500th goal to win El Clasico against Real Madrid, the new gaffer talks us through the most iconic moments of a stellar career – and then puts us back to work.

FourFourTwo June 2017

From Luis Enrique calling it quits midway through the season, to the court cases hanging over the heads of some of their leading players and their Jekyll & Hyde form in La Liga and the Champions League, it’s been a crazy season at Barcelona. The best example of their erratic form was against PSG, encapsulating the agony and ecstasy, incompetence and inspiration of a mad campaign at the Camp Nou. It could have been much worse were it not for Neymar. The 6-1 turnaround – inspired by the brilliance of the Brazil captain – was described by some members of the Spanish media as the greatest individual display in the Blaugrana’s history.

We speak to the Barça frontman and a host of his former coaches and team-mates to find out if this performance was a one-off or a sign of things to come. Can he really take over from Lionel Messi and be the player to carry the Catalans over the next decade? Legendary striker Romario thinks so – and who are we to argue? You’re up, Neymar The brilliant Brazilian’s displays this season suggest he’s ready to step out of Messi’s shadow and become the new King of the Camp Nou. And he owes it all to late-night sandwiches, leading from the front and one very lucky lemon.

Tony Pulis’ day-glo army From dodging punches and police batons to ‘equal opportunities abuse’, why on earth would anyone be a matchday steward? We slip on a neon jacket to find out…

All hail Saint Manolo Manolo Gabbiadini has become an instant idol at St. Mary’s after hitting six goals in his first eight matches since arriving from Napoli in January. But what does the silky Italian make of the carbonara on the south coast? Is the Premier League better than Serie A? And is Le Tissier really the Maradona of Southampton?

What’s in a name? Can a moniker make or break a career? Why are so many Brazilian footballers called Lineker? And how did Mighty Mouse become the father of all German Kevins? We uncover the game’s bizarre and at times baffling nomenclature.

One-on-One Former Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Spurs man Christian Ziege answers your questions in this month's One-on-One, including: What really happened when he left Middlesbrough? What was he thinking when he decided to get a mohawk at the 2002 World Cup? And did he nearly die while he was playing for Tottenham?!